Sold to rival Groupon for a 'non-material' amount in 2016 after years of decline.
The rise & fall
6 moments · 2007–2016
The key moments.
2007
🌱
2007
Founded in Washington, D.C.
Starts life as Hungry Machine before the daily-deals gold rush takes over.
Wikipedia
Dec 2010
Dec 2010
Amazon buys in
Amazon puts $175M into Groupon's chief rival.
Bloomberg
2011
📈
2011
The peak: ~$6B$6B
A $176M Series F led by J.P. Morgan caps the daily-deals craze.
Bloomberg
2012–13
2012–13
The fad reverses
Growth flips negative; Amazon's stake leads to a write-down of about $905M, and a 2013 financing marks the company at roughly a quarter of its peak.
Bloomberg
2014
💔
2014
Falls out of the club
Years of shrinkage and layoffs push the paper valuation below $1B.
Bloomberg
Oct 2016
🤝
Oct 2016
Acquired by Groupon for a 'non-material' sum
The old rival absorbs it for effectively nothing — a ~$6B valuation wiped out.
GeekWire
How it happened
LivingSocial was the chief rival to Groupon in the daily-deals craze, reaching a valuation as high as ~$6B in 2011 with backing from Amazon (which took a $175M stake) and a J.P. Morgan-led round.
The daily-deals model proved faddish and unprofitable: growth reversed, Amazon wrote down its investment by about $905M, and a 2013 financing marked LivingSocial at roughly a quarter of its peak. After years of shrinkage and layoffs, it was sold to Groupon in 2016 for a 'non-material' sum — effectively wiping out its once-enormous valuation.
Source: Bloomberg / GeekWire / Yahoo Finance (peak ~$6B 2011, $176M Series F led by J.P. Morgan; Amazon's $175M stake led to a ~$905M write-down; marked to ~$1.5B 2013; sold to Groupon for a non-material amount 2016)
Founders
TO
Tim O'Shaughnessy
Co-founder & CEO who led LivingSocial to its peak; stepped down early 2014 (sold to Groupon 2016)
